"Good. Now use the finer brush for the lower side of the helmet. It needs more careful attention to detail than the top."
"Yes." Aerys grumbled, his hand working over the armor.
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, Lord Corlys." He gave the old man his best smile.
"Now, be careful with the engravings. I had the Seahorse sigil inscribed by the best blacksmiths of Qohor."
"Truly, Lord Corlys?"
"And every scale next to it was engraved in a different city."
"That's amazing, Lord Corlys."
"The metal of the helmet came from the best mines of Yi Ti."
"So cool, Lord Corlys."
"The shine to its surface came from the blood of the Merling King himself."
"That's pretty neat, Lord Corlys."
A cuff upside his head woke Aerys from his daydreaming.
"Ow." He rubbed his head melodramatically.
"You weren't even listening, were you?"
"Was it something about how many places you have visited and how rich you are?"
"..."
"..."
"No, of course not. It was important information regarding your duties."
"Oh?" Aerys asked skeptically. "What was it?"
"Well, you missed it, didn't you?" Corlys retorted. "Now, run off. I have things to do."
Aerys did just that, yawning, as his mind went back to what had distracted him. His family had returned to the capital, and The Darklyns would probably want to do the same. His plans for them would probably yield no result, but then again, he hadn't really done much planning. It was more of a spur-of-the-moment idea that he thought up to see if Ceryse would react in a fun way.
Well, he got to learn more about the interesting girl's motivations, which was fun. She also tried to rope him into some business ventures she came up with to make more money, which was not so fun.
Well, he could just visit her on Urrax when he felt bored. It'd be fun if people decided that they were having an affair.
He went to the room assigned to him, picked up the box of sweets he had bought during his last outing, and left towards the chambers for the Blacks. It was a longer walk than it needed to be, as he was, quite unreasonably, roomed away from his loving sister and nephews.
Still, he had learned enough about the general habits of some of the castle's inhabitants by the simple expedient of asking the servants politely and generously, so it was easy enough to find Laenor in a verandah where he would entertain his friends. No such entertainment was in progress this soon after a funeral, but Laenor was there nonetheless, and arguing with his lover.
The place was too open for him to overhear anything without getting seen, but he could clearly see wild, aggressive gestures being exchanged.
Ah, poor man.
"Ser Laenor! Ser Qarl!" He greeted them, and they instantly stopped talking.
"Maekar." Laenor greeted him, annoyed.
"My prince," Qarl followed, bowing slightly. "It is Ser Qarl."
"Qarl." Aerys allowed.
"No, Qarl my prince."
"Karl."
"Like this, my prince. Qarl."
Aerys wondered if he should just kill him right now. Save everyone the trouble. But Daemon would just get someone else to do the deed for him.
"Kharl," he enunciated. "That's the best you're going to get. Correct me one more time and I will have you renamed from Qarl Qarlson to Colin Creevey. Who named you anyway? Some half-wit with a stutter?"
"Now then," he turned to Laenor, "How have you been, good-brother?" He asked, feeling pity.
"I've been well, Aerys." He answered with suspicion.
Aerys nodded sadly and handed him the box. "I brought some sweets for you. You should make the best of these next few days."
"Thank you." He took the box. "Wait– what 'next few days'?"
"You know, these days in general. Just try to live your best life."
"I… see?"
Aerys walked off before there could be more questions.
…
"Hey, Baela!" Aerys knocked at the door.
"What?"
"Come on out?"
"What for?"
"To build a snowman."
"What?"
"Let's go hunting or something."
He heard furious whispers being exchanged inside the room by two similar voices before the door opened and he was let in.
"What do you want to hunt?"
"Criminals."
Rhaena gasped and Baela's eyes widened.
"What? How will we find criminals?"
"It's simple. We'll hide our identity and bribe a guard or clerk to commit a crime. If they accept the bribe, we'll reveal our identity and arrest them!"
"Will that actually work?" Baela asked skeptically.
"Might not." He admitted. "But it'd be fun as hell."
She laughed in agreement.
"Wait, Baela!" The as yet silently sulking girl interjected. "You said you only were going to talk to him."
"What? It's just a bit of fun!" Her sister defended herself.
"With him? What if he does something?"
"So little trust in me, dear cousin?"
"You're on Aemond's side!" She accused, as if annoyed that she even had to state something so obvious. "And he hurt Jace!"
"Come now, cousin. If I was a bad person why would your grandmother give me lessons and your grandfather make me his squire?"
He walked closer to Rhaena and sat on her bed. It was softer than his.
"Well, I still don't like you."
She scooted away.
"What for? I wasn't even there. You're the one who couldn't fight off Aemond and let Jace get hurt."
"Hey!" Baela protested. "It wasn't her fault!"
"I know," he agreed. "It's not her fault no one's trained her to fight, while her cousin was taught by the most skilled fighters in the realm."
"Of course I wasn't trained to fight. I'm a lady!"
"But you still got into a fight." He pointed out with a laugh. "And then lost."
"Don't laugh at me!" She jumped towards him to push him off her bed, but Aerys jumped away first. He ran towards Baela and hid behind her.
"See?" He crowed. "With a temper like that she'll keep getting into fights. And losing!"
"I don't have a temper!" She yelled, unconvincingly.
"How about this? I'll teach you how to fight, and you can decide whether you like me or not later."
"I see no harm in that." Baela agreed, putting peer pressure on her sister.
Before Rhaena could find her footing and refuse, Aerys foraged some candlesticks that could pass for short training swords and got to tutoring them. The girls followed his lead with varying levels of enthusiasm.
The candlesticks broke the first time they hit each other and they had to stop training for the day.
…
"Hey, don't jostle me!" Baela hissed, riding on Aerys's shoulders.
"Stop complaining." He hissed back, trying to balance her weight and walk at the same time.
"Walk straight or the cloak will come off."
He groaned. This had sounded like such a good idea. He had even found this shady-looking black cloak with a hood on the washlines.
Slowly, but surely, they walked to the counter near the harbor.
"My ship, the Lady Carla, will be leaving in an hour." Baela repeated what he had told her to in a fake deep voice.
"Fuck is wrong with your voice?" The clerk at the counter asked.
"Umm. Sore throat." She got flustered at the curse word but managed to improvise.
"Well, then get leaving then."
"What about the inspection?" Baela asked, things not going to plan. She was supposed to pay him to skip the inspection.
"Huh. We did that when you came into harbor."
Baela lightly kicked at him. Giving up, he just turned around to walk away.
"Oh. Alright then." She hurriedly said to the clerk as her lower body turned around.
…
"Pfft." Rhaena laughed when her sister relayed the tale to her.
"What? It's not my fault the procedure here is different from King's Landing!" He defended.
"Whatever." She dismissed, cocking her trouser-clad hips in self-importance.
Aerys poked her with his wooden sword, then ducked as Baela charged at her from behind, resulting in the girl running into his bed.
His chambers had more room, so they had moved there for the girls' training. He was going to chide her for making a mess but was interrupted by a knock on the door.
The girls hid to the side and he opened the door to find a servant.
"My prince. Something has happened to Mylord Laenor!" He said with little prompting and Aerys smiled.
"What?"
"Uncle!" The girls questioned, coming out of hiding.
"Good job letting me know." He praised the servant he had asked to keep an eye on the older man and found a gold coin to pay him and got the rest of the story.
Soon as they did, they ran to the hall where the fight had occurred with their wooden swords. It was bustling with guards and it was easy to see what had got them in a tizzy. A body was being pulled out from the fireplace, and there was only one name on everyone's lips: Laenor.
Aerys smiled at things
finally starting, regardless of how different the details might be from the story he had read.